Deaths down to 193 in a week

FEWER than 200 people died with symptoms of Covid-19 in the last week of July – the lowest virus death toll since before lockdown.

The 193 deaths from individuals diagnosed with the virus amounted to 2.2 per cent of all deaths, a little over one in 50.

The landmark low in deaths linked to coronavirus came in the seventh week in a row in which the total number of people who died was below average levels. At the height of the outbreak four months ago deaths were running at more than double average rates.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics showed no sign that a second wave of infections was leading to increased death rates in the week that ended on Friday 31 July, the first week of renewed quarantine restrictions on holidaymakers returning from Spain. The continuing lows for Covid victims leave teaching unions, who are pressing for limits on schools opening in England and Wales next month, looking increasingly out of touch with the real risks posed by the virus.

The ONS count is based on deaths registered in the week ending 31 July. The tally of Covid-19 deaths is taken from death certificates where doctors recorded their belief that patients had the virus.

It said that 8,946 people died, 55 more than in the previous week but still 90 less than the average death rate for the same week of the year over the past five years. Across the UK as a whole, there were 10,242 deaths, 42 fewer than the average.

Of these, 193 deaths were linked by doctors to the virus, a drop of more than 11 per cent on the 217 recorded in the previous week. This was the lowest number of virus deaths since the week which ended on 20 March, three days before Boris Johnson ordered the lockdown.

Even those over 65 – the group most at risk – Covid-19 accounted for just 2.7 per cent of all deaths. Across the whole of the UK, there were 201 virus deaths in the week which ended on 31 July.

The ONS said: ‘The disease has had a larger impact on those most vulnerable. Some of these deaths would have likely occurred over the duration of the year but have occurred earlier because of Covid-19. This … could contribute to a period below the five-year average.’